Kabul: Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir’s unprecedented concentration of power, backed by constitutional amendments, cabinet decisions, presidential notifications and parliamentary votes, could make the country’s present arrangement difficult to reverse, a report has stated.
There is no martial-law proclamation to revoke and no military government formally ruling from Islamabad.
Instead, the military’s dominance is increasingly being entrenched in Pakistan’s constitutional and statutory framework, a report in Afghanistan’s leading news agency, Khaama Press, detailed.
“Pakistan has completed another stage in the consolidation of military authority around Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir — this time not through a coup or martial law, but through legislation passed by the country’s elected parliament. On August 20, the National Assembly and Senate passed the Defence Forces of Pakistan Act, 2026, and amendments to the National Command Authority Act, 2010,” the report stated.
“The legislation was approved by both chambers and received presidential assent the same day, according to Pakistan’s parliamentary records,” it added.
According to the report, what the government calls a technical follow-up to the 27th Constitutional Amendment is, in reality, a sweeping concentration of military power. It noted that Parliament has institutionalised a command structure that places unprecedented authority over Pakistan’s Army, Navy and Air Force in a single office.
“The Defence Forces of Pakistan Act establishes a Defence Forces Headquarters under the Chief of Defence Forces and names the CDF the Prime Minister’s Principal Military Advisor on national security, defence and all matters concerning the armed forces. More significantly, it gives the CDF ‘operational command and control’ of the armed forces. Munir is both Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces,” the report mentioned.
It stressed that the power consolidation was already underway before August, as the 27th Constitutional Amendment of November 2025 had fundamentally altered Pakistan’s civil-military structure
Citing British think tank Chatham House, it said the amendment “decisively shifted the dial in favour of authoritarian rule” by creating the CDF post, expanding Munir’s powers and granting exceptional protections to five-star military officers.
“The amendment provides lifetime immunity from criminal prosecution to five-star officers and requires a two-thirds parliamentary majority for their removal — even though an elected Prime Minister can be removed through a simple majority. That asymmetry says more about Pakistan’s present power structure than official descriptions of ‘administrative reform’, the report detailed.
Highlighting the deepening military consolidation in Pakistan’s power structure, it said, “The question is therefore no longer simply how powerful Pakistan’s army chief has become. It is whether the country’s civilian institutions still possess either the capacity — or the willingness — to restrain him.”
(IANS)
